The Lima Symphony Orchestra will be bringing its signature Music by Candlelight performance back Saturday and Sunday, pairing beautiful music and beautiful spaces in an intimate setting.
LIMA — Last year, the Lima Symphony Orchestra tried something different with its Music by Candlelight shows.
The annual January show saw its second performance canceled due to weather last year, but this year executive director Elizabeth Brown-Ellis said the weather conditions look much better for the 7:30 p.m. Saturday show at Trinity United Methodist Church and the 4 p.m. Sunday show at the St. Marys Grand Opera House.
“There was a level 2 snow emergency in surrounding counties so although everything was clear locally, our musicians coming from Cincinnati and Columbus could not get here for the second performance and we had to cancel it,” she said. “But we’re very hopeful that we will have perfect weather and an amazing concert in St. Marys this year.”
This year’s show will be somewhat different, but will still give the audience the same intimate atmosphere with the orchestra close by.
“They’ll still be surrounded by the incredible glow of candlelight, which really creates this magic ambiance,” Brown-Ellis said. “This year, we’re actually doing a predominantly woodwind program whereas previous shows have been focused on the string family. This year, we’re changing it a little bit so the experience will be everything people know and love, but with a different twist.”
One interesting development will be that for the first time, the orchestra will play a piece by a living composer, Valerie Coleman.
“This is very different from what we usually do at our candlelight performances, which is performing Mozart or baroque music,” Brown-Ellis said. “To feature someone who is living is very different. This music is very much in the style that people would expect, but it is actually called ‘Umoja’, the Swahili word for ‘Unity’, which is also the first night of the celebration of Kwanzaa.”
Having two performances will give people better chances to catch the shows, especially if they have a preference for a particular timeslot.
“We have some people who might not prefer to be out late in the evening,” Brown-Ellis said. “And it also gives us a great chance to go to other communities and meet people where they live if they don’t necessarily want to come to Lima and prefer to stay local. But this is a great chance for us to increase our audience and introduce new people to our programming who may not have ever been to the Lima Symphony Orchestra.”
But it will all be the product of intense work.
“The orchestra will begin preparing at home and then meet together for rehearsals Wednesday,” Brown-Ellis. “They’ll put the concert together fairly quickly in terms of that. Production-wise, though, getting all the candelabra, chairs and music stands to the church and the opera house is an experience that involves a lot of volunteers. It is not glamorous work, but the result is so beautiful.”
Most important, though, is the end-result, which Brown-Ellis said will be something truly special.
“The experience of candlelight is something you do not get in the typical concert hall,” she said. “You are so physically close to the musician and there’s something about these spaces that makes the concert reflective and intimate.”
The concerts will also feature music from Johannes Brahms and Antonin Dvorak.
For more information or to buy tickets, visit the Lima Symphony Orchestra website, limasymphony.com.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
